NFL NOTEBOOK: Best of best games was Falcons' rally

VITO STELLlNO

The NFL has become such a multibillion-dollar corporate entity, marketing everything from T-shirts to its own television network, that it's sometimes difficult to remember what really made the league what it is today.

The games.

Sunday, the NFL had four 1 p.m. games end in frantic finishes in about a 10-minute span. Two of the games were decided on the final play, a third with three seconds remaining and the fourth with nine seconds left.

Jason Elam kicked a 48-yard field goal on the final play to give the Atlanta Falcons a 22-20 victory over the Chicago Bears. Josh Brown kicked a 49-yard field goal on the final play as the St. Louis Rams upset the Washington Redskins 19-17. Matt Schaub ran three yards for a touchdown on a quarterback draw with three seconds left to give the Houston Texans a 29-28 victory over the Miami Dolphins. Ryan Longwell kicked a 26-yard field goal with nine seconds left to give the Minnesota Vikings a 12-10 victory over the Detroit Lions.

Whew. It doesn't get any better than that.

And later in the afternoon, Sean Morey blocked a Mat McBriar punt during overtime, and Monty Beisel picked up the ball and ran three yards for touchdown, giving the Arizona Cardinals a 30-24 victory over the Dallas Cowboys.

With all that excitement, Atlanta's victory stood out.

The drama started when Elam, faced with a chance to give the Falcons a nine-point lead with 2:46 left in the game, missed a 33-yard field-goal attempt. The Bears responded on Rashied Davis' 17-yard touchdown catch with 11 seconds left, giving them a 20-19 lead.

"It looked bleak there for a minute," Falcons coach Mike Smith said, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

But the Bears started to make mistakes. Because they had given up an 85-yard return to Jerious Norwood on their previous kickoff, they tried a low, short squib kick, but the ball just went to the Falcons' 34. Harry Douglas returned it 10 yards before sliding with six seconds left.

Atlanta needed a five-second pass play to get in field-goal position, so Michael Jenkins ran a deep corner route, caught a 26-yard throw from rookie quarterback Matt Ryan and ran out of bounds with one second left. Elam followed with the game-winning kick.

"This is one of the most exciting games I have ever seen," said Smith, who's in his first season with the Falcons after five years as the Jaguars' defensive coordinator. "I haven't been in a game that finished quite like this. There were a lot of ebbs and flows in terms of emotions for everybody out there."

So how did the Bears let it happen? Defensive coordinator Bob Babich blamed himself for calling a cover-2 defense on the last play, and cornerback Marcus Hamilton said it was his fault for not playing deep enough.

Free safety Mike Brown also took the blame.

"He was open, man," Brown said. "... I should've made the play [and] didn't."

Low numbers for L.T.

Philip Rivers threw for three touchdowns, leading the San Diego Chargers to a 30-10 victory over the New England Patriots, and LaDainian Tomlinson added 74 rushing yards to go over the 11,000-yard mark for his career. Tomlinson, who was playing with a sore toe, wasn't happy with his performance.

"We need to run the ball better," he said, according to the San Diego Union-Tribune. "We're not very good at running the ball. I don't know [why]. That's something we need to find out. "

Tomlinson is averaging 3.7 yards per carry and 67.5 yards per game this season.

Tough on the run

All the New York Jets talk is about quarterback Brett Favre, but a key is their improved run defense as they held the Cincinnati Bengals to 43 rushing yards during a 26-14 victory.

The Jets gave up more than 14,000 rushing yards from 2001 to 2007 - the third-highest total in the NFL during that span - but they're third in run defense this season.

The stout defense helped New York overcome three turnovers by Favre.

"I don't believe in ugly wins," Favre said, according to the New York Post. "I believe a win's a win, and that one feels as good as any I've been a part of in recent memory."

This story includes information from interviews, other beat writers, Web sites and news service reports.